dred and eighty-five pages), by A. W. Brayton, is largely a compilation, as the author states in his preface; but it contains a considerable number of notes upon the habits of various species, the dates of extinction, etc., which are original and valuable. Keys are given for the families and genera discussed, except in the case of the Muridae and a few other groups. Forty-nine species are enumerated, which are distributed as follows: Carnivora, 15; Ungulata, 3; Cheiroptera, 5; Insectivora, 5; Rodentia, 20; Marsupialia, 1. Of these, the following species are, or are supposed to be, now extinct in Ohio: the puma (Felis concolor), the lynx (Lynx canadensis), the pine marten (Mustela americana), the wolverine (Gulo luscus), the badger (Taxidea americana), the wapiti (Cervus canadensis), the beaver (Castor fiber), and the bison (Bison americana).

The paper may, perhaps, be criticised as not containing sufficient information regarding the distribution of species within the state, nor upon such topics as food, local variation, and similar topics, showing a lack of direct observation upon Ohio specimens.

Dr. Wheaton's welcome report on the birds covers four hundred and forty-two pages. Its introductory chapter treats of the physical geography of Ohio, and some peculiarities of its climate; of latitudinal variation in birds; of the general characteristics and affinities of the class Aves; and of the arrangement and definition of the orders of North-American birds. Most of this matter is compiled from high authorities on the several subjects.

In the main body of the work, also, the technical matter is chiefly taken at secondhand. The keys to the genera are from Dr. Jordan's Manual of the vertebrates of the northern United States; the definitions of the higher groups and the descriptions of species, ⚫ almost without exception or alteration,' from Dr. Coues' Key to North American birds; and the nomenclature from Dr. Coues' Checklist of 1874, with such modifications as changes made since its publication require.' The name of each species is followed by references to all writers, whether general or local, who have mentioned that species as Ohioan; and, in addition, the general synonymy of the species is given with sufficient fulness to enable changes in the nomenclature to be traced.' There is an appendix, also, which includes a Check-list of Ohio birds, with the dates of their appearance and disappearance, as observed in the vicinity of Columbus ; a list of the birds which have been seen in the

author's garden, in the heart of that city; a bibliography of Ohio ornithology; an essay on the relation between latitude and the pattern of coloration in Ohio birds; and a glossary of such scientific terms as require definition.

These technical matters have evidently been treated with care, and, in the main, wisely; but it is to the biographical portion of the work that we can accord the highest praise. The biographies are usually from Dr. Wheaton's own pen; and in all such cases they are done in a masterly manner. The author brings to his task an intense inherent love of his subject, a philosophical turn of thought well known to all who are familiar with his writings, and a mind trained to the most conscientious regard for scientific truth and accuracy. In addition, his writings have a literary finish by no means common in these days of hasty production; while the quaintness of occasional expressions, characteristic of a generation fast passing away, adds still further to their charm.

In short, while it would be possible to say ungracious things about this report, we may fairly characterize it, on the whole, as a work of high scientific accuracy, general as well as local utility, and universal interest. It is a pity that the ornithology of every one of the United States cannot be treated in an equally exhaustive and able manner.

The report on the reptiles and amphibians, by Dr. W. H. Smith, already favorably known to herpetologists as the author of a systematic review of the Urodela and Coecilia, occupies more than one hundred pages. Thirty-seven reptiles and twenty-three batrachians are described as native in Ohio, and numerous extralimital forms are discussed. In general, the report seems worthy of high praise. The technical descriptions are pertinent, and the accounts given of the habits and peculiarities of the different species are full and interesting. Of many of the species mentioned, there is no better account extant. In view of the confused and unsifted condition of the synonymy of American reptiles, the value of the quotations would have been increased by the citation of works as well as authors. We notice a few unexplained, though perhaps justifiable, deviations from current classification; as, for example, the reference of Kennicott's Regina Kirtlandi' to Regina rather than to Tropidoclonium. There are also a few unnecessary violations of the law of priority in the nomenclature adopted; as in the retention of the name Menobranchus,' instead of the prior and now equally familiar Necturus.'

The elaborate report on the fishes, by Professor David S. Jordan, occupying more than two hundred and fifty pages, gives an interesting history of Ohioan ichthyology, with descriptions of all the species as well as of the principal genera and higher groups. It appears that the fauna has been increased from the sixty-six species known to Dr. Kirtland (18401846) to a hundred and sixty-five. A useful tabulated synopsis exhibits in four parallel columns the names admitted by Rafinesque, Kirtland, and Günther, as well as Jordan. The fauna is also disintegrated into its several elements, the Lake fauna (26 sp.), the Ohioriver fauna (37 sp.), and the species of general distribution' (28 sp.) As an illustration of the character of the local fauna of the smaller streams of the interior,' a list of the species (68) occurring in the White River, near Indianapolis, is added, with notes as to their comparative abundance or rarity.

The typography, although good for a public document, could not be accorded much excellence were the work issued by a private publisher; and the press-work is very unsatisfactory. The synonymy of species is printed in much too large type in the division on the mammals, although afterwards changed. This inequality is unsightly; and numerous typographical errors occur.

GEIKIE'S GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. Geological sketches at home and abroad. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., F.R.S., director of the Geological survey of the United Kingdom. New York, Macmillan & Co., 1882. 370 p. 8°. In this pleasant volume, well illustrated by the author's pencil, Prof. A. Geikie has gathered together a number of sketches, essays, and addresses, picturesque, descriptive, and historical, published during the past twenty years in various journals, and all written with some reference to the science of geology, of which he has been so successful a cultivator. Some of these papers have little more than a local and popular interest, but are gracefully written, and well suited to give the unscientific reader a taste for geological studies. Others have a higher significance, and raise questions which are of importance to all students of geology, and would require for their adequate discussion more space than we can here command.

One of the most interesting of these papers is that entitled A fragment of primeval Europe,' in which we are introduced to the crystalline rocks of north-western Scotland

a

and the adjacent isles. These ancient gneissic and granitoid strata, first critically studied by MacCulloch, were early recognized as the lithological and mineralogical analogues of the primitive gneisses of Scandinavia and parts of North America; and in 1855, after the name of Laurentian had been given to the latter, it was suggested that the name should be extended to the similar rocks of Scotland, which Murchison had called the fundamental gneiss, suggestion since adopted. The aspect of the region occupied by these ancient rocks is peculiar."The whole landscape is one of smoothed and rounded bosses and ridges of bare rock, which, uniting and then separating, enclose innumerable little tarns. There are no definite lines of hill and valley: the country consists, in fact, of a seemingly inextricable labyrinth of hills and valleys, which, on the whole, do not rise much above, nor sink much below, a general average level." No peaks nor crags are seen; and the domes and ridges present everywhere a rounded, flowing outline." The whole area is, according to our author, smoothed, polished, and striated, as if ice-worn, and presents, in fact, a typical glaciated surface. Over this tumbled sea of gray gneiss' rise conical mountains of nearly horizontal, dark-red sandstone, capped by white quartzites, the summits sometimes attaining 3,400 feet above tide-water. Two good woodcuts serve to illustrate the peculiarities of this curious landscape.

6

These uncrystalline, unconformable beds of Cambrian age, dipping gently eastward, are succeeded by fossiliferous limestones belonging to the same period, which, in the same direction, appear to pass below a series of flaggy gneisses and crystalline schists, the age of which has been a burning question among British geologists. The problem regarding them is identical with that which has been raised in New-England geology; namely, whether the crystalline schists, towards and beneath which the fossiliferous paleozoic rocks lying to the westward are seen to dip, are newer or older than these. Professor Geikie, for Scotland, holds to the former view, and supposes these crystalline rocks in the Highlands to be formed. from a subsequent alteration of still younger paleozoic strata: but in Scotland, as in New England, the opposite view is now, by most geologists, held to be established; namely, that the crystalline rocks in question are pre-Cam-. brian, and in that sense a part of the primeval' world.1 Geikie shows that the sculpturing of the 1 Geological magazine, February, 1883, p. 83.

surface of the Laurentian gneiss of western Scotland was anterior to the deposition of the Cambrian sandstones, and that there are minor domes and bosses of crystalline rock, continuous with those of the exposed surfaces supposed to bear the marks of modern glacial action. The conclusion from this would seem to be, that the latter agency has done little more than groove and polish these ancient rounded surfaces, from which a later erosion had removed the covering sandstone. Whether the pre-Cambrian erosion was glacial is a question which Geikie does no more than suggest. In this connection, the existence of a state of chemical decay as a necessary preliminary to the erosion of crystalline rocks should not be lost sight of. We believe that such a process predetermined the contours of their present eroded surfaces.

The question of the erosion of ancient landsurfaces is further discussed by Geikie in a lecture here republished, given by him before the Royal geographical society in 1879, on The geographical evolution of Europe. In this, by aid of the data of geology, he gives a chapter on what has elsewhere been called paleogeography. Geikie shows that the fragment of primeval Europe already noticed, was a part of a great pre-Cambrian area, to which parts of Finland and Scandinavia belonged, and from which was derived the sediments that built up the Cambrian and Silurian series of Great Britain and western Europe. These lower paleozoic rocks in Great Britain alone, he assumes to cover an extent of 60,000 ☐ miles, with an average thickness of 16,000 feet, or 3 miles, which figures he considers below the mark, — making not less than 180,000 cubic miles, equal to a mountain range from the North Cape to Marseilles, or 1,800 miles long, 3 miles high, and 33 miles wide. This, he well remarks, represents but a fraction of the material thus derived; since in the seas of that time, extending far eastward, were also laid down great thicknesses of paleozoic rocks, continuous with those of the British isles. Calculations of this kind, applied to North America, give us still larger notions of the erosion of great pre-Cambrian areas belonging to some Palae-Atlantis.

It would be profitable, with Geikie's sketches as our guide, to glance at the glaciers of Norway, the ancient volcanoes of Auvergne and of north-western Europe, and to accompany him, in his excursion in 1880, into our western states, where his quick eye readily comprehended many of those remarkable characteris

1 Harper's annual record of science, etc., 1873, p. xlix.

tics which make the transcontinental journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific a geographical education.

In his lecture on assuming his late post of professor of geology at Edinburgh, in 1871, Geikie has happily delineated the characters of the Scottish school of geology, and traced many of the characteristics of its masters — Hutton, Playfair, and Sir James Hall-to the local peculiarities of their native land, with its crystalline, contorted, and unfossiliferous rocks, so unlike the regions in which the early Italian school laid the foundations of geology. It is instructive, in this connection, to reflect how the great and simple outlines of American paleozoic stratigraphy, as displayed in the Appalachian basin, led to the grand conceptions of structural geology formulated by the brothers Rogers, by James Hall, and by Lesley, and how the remarkable features of our western regions have taught our geologists of the younger generation lessons which have enabled them so greatly to advance the science, and to correct the views of their predecessors, both in the old and the new world.

We hope on another occasion to notice more in detail some of the questions raised in this instructive volume, in which every student of geology will find something to instruct him, and to stimulate thought.

VERTEBRATE ANATOMY.

A handbook of vertebrate dissection. Part ii. How to dissect a bird. By Prof. H. NEWELL MARTIN and Dr. WILLIAM A. MOALE. New York, 12°. Macmillan, 1883. 4+ [86] p., 3 pl.

THIS second part of the handbook is quite up to the standard of the first. It is comprehensive, without going beyond its intended limits; the descriptions are clear and wellworded; the subjects selected for illustration are those most needing it, viz., the more complex parts of the skeleton; and the diagram constituting figure 5 will prove very useful in clarifying certain ideas of the learner.

The method of treatment is well calculated to bring out the observational power of the student; and the fact that the avian, rather than the generic and specific characters, are made prominent, renders the book much more widely useful, and also serves to commend it to practical workers in zoology. With the other books of this series, which are to treat in a similar manner of a rat, a bony and cartilaginous fish, and one of the large, tailed amphibia, or Urodela, we shall be supplied with a book which has long been needed in America.

282

[VOL. I., No. 10.

those laboratories where the invertebrates have hitherto received the lion's share of attention, all, the time in a course supposed to be deand in some cases have taken nearly, or quite voted to general zoology.

T. C.

MATHEMATICS.

--

Attractions. the attraction exerted between two masses when the M. Angelitti discusses the case of attraction varies as the product of the masses and some function of the distance. The particular function of the distance employed is the inverse nth power. The author considers the attraction of lines and plane figures upon a point in the plane, and finally briefly considers the attraction of surfaces and solids upon points external to them. Nearly all of the results are known, many of them having been given by Jellett and Townsend. — (Giorn. mat., xx.) Bernouilli's numbers. Mr. Ely, in a paper read [584 before the J. H. U. mathematical society, Jan. 17, 1883, gave an account of the numbers Anm (generally known as AO") which occur in the proof of Staudt's theorem concerning Bernoulli's numbers. ing the definition of these numbers in the form of After giva series, and stating some of their known properties, Mr. Ely proceeds to enunciate a number of new properties. Without using a great many algebraical symbols, it is impossible to give a fuller notice of Mr. Ely's interesting communication. kins univ. circ., No. 21, 1883.) T. c. - (Johns Hop

Partitions. - Professor Sylvester defines partition[585 graphs, and makes certain applications of their properties to infinite series and infinite products, and particularly to the two forms of representation of the theta functions of one variable by means of an infinite series and an infinite product. A partitiongraph is defined as a series of points lying in lines parallel to two fixed lines. The number of points, or lines parallel to one of the boundaries chosen at will, will represent the successive components of the partition, and the number of the lines themselves will be the number of parts in the partition. The lines in question are termed magnitude-lines, and the crossing ones part-lines. The graph is termed regular when the magnitude-lines never increase as they recede from the rectilinear boundary to which they are parallel. This cannot happen without the same being true of lines parallel to the part-boundary. A regular graph is thus one in which the lines and columns of points neither of them increase as they recede from their respective boundaries. A partition is self-conjugate when its representative graph, after an interchange of the names of the part- and magnitude-lines, gives the same reading. Such a graph is therefore symmetrical. By application of the properties of the above-described partitiongraphs, Prof. Sylvester proves the equation between the reciprocal of (1-ax) (1-ax2) (1—ax®) . . . and the infinite series x+ a2

a

1+
He also shows how to obtain the development in in-
+...
finite series of the infinite products (1+ax) (1+ax3)
(1+ux)... and (1+a ̄1x) (1+a ̄1x3) (1+a ̄1x3). .

1-—-xi-ax (1-x) '
− a x + ( 1 − x ) ( 1 − x2) * (1—ax)(1—ax2)

A parallel bipartition of u is defined as a couple of sets of numbers written on opposite sides of a line of demarcation, so that the number of numbers on the left always exceeds that on the right by a given difference, d, which may be any number from zero upwards, and such that the sum of all the elements collectively is equal to n. Then the co-efficient of

x" a or "a in the above products is the number of parallel bipartitions of n to the difference j, limited to contain only odd numbers, which must not appear in the same arrangement more than once on the same side of the line of demarcation. In vol. v., No. 3, of the American journal of mathematics, Prof. Sylvester will give a full account of this new theory of partitiongraphs. (Johns Hopk. univ. circ., No. 21.) T. c.

PHYSICS. (Photography.)

[586

[587 A

W. H. P.

Electricity.

[589

E. H. H.

[590

past year, and has read in particular the article of Dr. O. J. Lodge in the November number, will probably learn but little from the French treatment of the subject. (Comptes rendus, Jan. 8, 22. 29, and Feb. 12.) E. H. H. [591

A new dynamometer. - Dr. H. Hertz calls attention to the fact, that, in a Weber's dynamometer, the ratio of the apparent resistance offered to an alternating current of period (T) to the real resistance

(r) of the instrument is 1+ (P), where P is the co-efficient of self-induction. He concludes that the instrument can give no information as to the presence or absence of a current which changes its direction more than ten thousand times in a second; nor can it be applied to such problems as the discharge of a Leyden jar through a short metal conductor. He therefore proposes a new dynamometer, which measures the energy by the heating of a small silver wire through which the current passes. The expansion of the wire is made to rotate a steel needle to which a mirror is attached. It is claimed that a change in temperature of a thirtieth of a degree, cent., can thus be detected. The self-induction of this instrument is, of course, zero; and its resistance need not be large. From experiments on an instrument of resistance .85 S. U., the author concludes that a current of one Daniell's cell through 30 S. U., and, by shunting, currents of any strength, may be determined with sufficient accuracy. (Zeitschr. f. instrumentenkunde, Jan.)

J. T.

CHEMISTRY.

(Organic.)

[592

Kyanethine and certain of its derivatives. — In continuing the study of kyanethine, E. v. Meyer finds that nitrogen is eliminated by the action of nitrous acid with the formation of an oxy-base, CH13N2(OH) (oxykyanconiine). Methyl iodide forms methylkyanconiine, CH3N2(NHCH3), in which the methyl group is attached to a nitrogen atom, as shown by the formation of methylamine and the oxy-base, when it is heated with hydrochloric acid. Methyl-, ethyl-, and ethylen-derivatives of the oxy-base were examined. By the action of bromine upon kyanethine, an oily product was obtained, which gave a fat acid (probably propionic), isodipic acid CH CH, COOH ACH CH COOH trogen. When mixed with two volumes of concentrated ammonia, the chief product was an amide of the same butylendicarboxylic acid. The formula

and a third acid containing ni

(CH3)3 C&H & N - NH NH2

is regarded by the author as the most probable expression of the constitution of kyanethine. Kyanmethine was also prepared by the same method; viz., by the action of sodium upon methyl cyanide. Its derivatives and reactions were analogous to those of kyanethine. — (Journ. prakt. chem., xxvi. 337, and xxvii. 152.) C. F. M. [593

Meconic acid and its derivatives. That meconic acid is not a tribasic acid, as Liebig and others have asserted, is shown by a study of its ethers. E. Mennel prepared the mono- and diethyl-ethers with alcohol and hydrochloric acid; but the triethyl ether could not be obtained in this way. The third ethyl group was introduced by heating the silver salt

of the diethyl ether with ethyl iodide. The absence of other hydroxyl groups was shown by ferri cchloride, which gave no red color when added to an alcoholic solution of the ether. Mennel assigns to this acid COOH the formula C ̧HO2 If it has this constitu2COOH OH

tion, the ethyl group attached to the hydroxyl must have different properties from either of the two attached to the carboxyl groups. That this is the case, appears from the formation of ethylmeconic acid when the triethyl ether is heated with water, and from the conversion of ethylmeconic, when heated, into COOH COOH ethylkomenic acid, C, HO2,

COOH CH2O2, OC2H

2

(1)

N

N

Phenanthroline.

Although but one pyridine ring takes part in reactions with methyl iodide, bromine and acids, an octo-hydride (C12H,N2H) resulted from the action of nascent hydrogen. By oxidation with potassium permanganate, beside chinolinic acid, dipyridyldicarboxylic acid was formed in small quantity. One carboxyl group was removed from this acid by heat alone; and, on heating with calcium hydrate, an oil (dipyridyl) distilled over. According to the authors, this is the first representative in the pyridine series of bodies analogous to diphenyl. If phenanthroline is an analogue of anthracen, (1) there would be but one form for the dicarboxylic acid; but if, as the authors regard more probable, it is similar to phenanthren, (2) there are two possible forms for this acid,